Sir Edward Clarke has been making speeches to his con-
stituents at Plymouth, in which he has declared himself favourable to some sort of mediation or arbitration as regards the boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana, even though the question had to be reopened as to whether any of the country within the second Schomburgk line shall belong to Venezuela, though Lord Salisbury claimed it for Great Britain, and declined arbitration on all that portion of the disputed territory. Sir Edward is not very careful in his study of the foreign questions with which he deals, since he treated Lord Salisbury's despatch in answer to Mr. Olney as a reply to President Cleveland's Message, whereas it was written weeks before that Message to Congress was delivered; but on the whole, we think the general drift of his Tuesday's speech was wise, though its proposals would require the modification or withdrawal of some of Lord Salisbury's language. In Ins Wednesday's speech, Sir Edward Clarke expressed the hope that the House of Commons would not pay toe much attention to foreign affairs during this Session, as be held it to be hardly the best Assembly for discussing them. He marked out for it only three great legislative efforts,—the alleviation of the heavy pressure on agricultural 'and, the relief of voluntary schools, and a new Employers' Liability Bill. Sir Edward Clarke remains a pronounced Conservative; but now that be is no longer one of the legal advisers of the Crown, ne is not exactly pedantic in his loyalty to his leaders, though he supports cordially their general principles.
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